Cleaning Out Under My Bed
by PuddingProducts
Summary: A series of oneshots, in order to clean out all those pesky plot bunnies. No Pairings.


The Challenge: write one oneshot a week for the rest of my summer vacation

The Goal: get myself back into writing, and by doing this stop myself from sounding like i'm always writing an essay, get back into the right mindset for writing reviews for stuff i read, and of course clear out the plot bunnies that got lost under my bed c:

* * *

**What if a muggle found Hogwarts?**

It was the night of September 1st, and the weather was less than satisfactory. It was raining, the wind was blowing so hard that all the trees looked like they had minds of their own, and the fog was so thick that you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you, let alone the trees. It was pretty creepy wandering around and suddenly being smacked by branches you couldn't see coming and hearing the wind howl and the branches creak. This part of Scotland was rumoured to have wolves, so the wind really isn't helping things.

It being such a night, of course there was some unlucky person to be lost in the storm.

"Ow! Goddammit, not another branch!"

Meet Pippa, a lovely girl on a visit to see her grandparents. Unfortunately for her, there are no buses running in this area, nor any cabbies. Pippa here is stuck walking to her grandparents' house, and since she was walking a good two hours before the storm hit, and then another two during the storm, all done while carrying a rather large duffle bag, she is understandably tired. She is also no where near her grandparents, because she got turned around in the storm.

"Ha! Missed-"

Fwomp.

"-me. Okay. I give up! I'm just going to try and find some nice run-down shack or something to hide in."

And with that declaration, Pippa turned on her heel and started walking North. Or at least, what she thought was North. Really it was closer to West but, well, she is stuck in the fog so mistakes are allowed.

After another hour of stumbling over roots, slipping into distressingly deep mud puddles, and being smacked around by all the trees, the rather irritated girl finally saw It.

Civilization.

Actually, just a bunch of lights in the fog. Same thing really.

So of course, being dead tired, completely soaked, and slightly delirious, Pippa started running towards the lights.

"I'm saved! Shelter! Food! Sleep!"

She was almost crying tears of joy as she tried to take another step closer.

"... Or at least I will be when i get my leg free."

Her leg had gotten stuck in the mud, because Pippa wasn't paying attention and started putting all her weight on the one leg for far to long. So it sank.

After pulling her leg free, she headed towards the lights at a more careful pace. Eventually, she got to some gates.

"Well, where there are gates there is a building! Thank god."

She started feeling around the gates to see if there was a buzzer somewhere. Not finding one, she decided to just jump the brick fence. She wasn't able to grip onto any of the bricks so Pippa decided to get creative. She opened her duffle bag and pulled out a pair of tights, tying the feet of the tights to her bag. Then she pushed her bag against the brick wall, and used it as a stepping stool. Climbing on top of the wall and sitting down, she then pulled up her duffle bag and put it down on the other side of the wall to help her get down.

Once Pippa was down on the ground, she picked up her handy dandy duffle bag and continued her walk towards the lights.

Once she finally got close enough to see the building, all she saw was a wall, so she followed it until she found a really big wooden door.

"Well, here goes."

So the waterlogged girl knocked on the door, hoping that whoever lived here was home.

She was in luck, because the door opened after only 10 minutes of non-stop knocking.

"And who are you then?" A severe looking woman asked, partly confused and mostly disapproving.

Pippa stammered a bit, suddenly feeling like she was being scolded. "We-well I got stuck in the storm, and well, I-er-I saw the lights on hoping that I could stay for a bit until the storm, uhm, passed."

The woman's lips pursed, and frankly Pippa was starting to be really intimidated by this woman.

Sighing, the woman opened the doors further. "Very well then, come in girl and follow me. I'll be taking you to the headmaster's office."

And so the two walked down the halls, Pippa shivering because she was soaked to the bone and wandering around a castle made of stone. After a minute, her teeth clattering became so loud that the woman turned towards her and pulled out a stick, muttering some nonsense words. When Pippa's clothes became suddenly dry and also toasty, she stared at the stick for a second blinking.

Then she shrugged it off, and kept walking. She had just spent a few hours in a storm, so she figured she was just delusional. No need to make a fuss over her delusions, after all.

At that point, her indifference towards the strange things that were happening around her that she stopped noticing them. Talking portraits on the walls? Moving staircases and gargoyles? A phoenix in the corner? They all flew past her. At the moment all Pippa could think of was food and sleep, and as we all know nothing can get past a teenager's need for food and sleep.

Pippa was ushered into an office with an old man with a really impressive beard, and into a really squishy chair. She almost fell asleep where she sat, but then the old man started talking.

"Hello Minerva, and who is this?"

The woman, named Minerva apparently, looked at the bearded man with a stern face. "This, Albus, is a girl who managed to wander onto school grounds despite not being a student."

The newly dubbed Albus, just smiled with a twinkle in his eye and turned to Pippa. "And what brings you here, Miss?"

Pippa tried to stifle a yawn, and blushed. "I'm Pippa, sir. Pippa McMillan. I got caught out in the storm, and I saw the lights from your school. So I, well, I wanted to see if I could stay until the storm ended?"

"Very well then, you may stay the night. We'll have a room made up for you and some food brought up soon." The old man said.

"Albus-"

"One moment Minerva, now Pippa. I have a question for you. How did you get past the front gate?" He asked the now tomato red girl.

"I, erm, I sortajumpedthewall." She said, and the old man just smiled.

Minerva looked at him, with a frown on her face. "Albus, surely we need to take more time in thinking this through. The students will be here in less than an hour! And she isn't one of us, Albus, what about the statute?"

Pippa was confused at that. What did they mean she wasn't 'one of them'? And what was this 'Statute?' She sat up straighter in her chair, about to ask for some answers when Albus started to speak.

"I have it under control, Minerva. Now if you could take Ms. McMillan to her bed for the night in the Hospital Wing, we can continue this conversation later?"

At this point, Pippa was very tired and confused, and so she was resigned to not getting any answers. She'd ask in the morning. Funnily enough, she she couldn't remember the trip to the Hospital Wing, only rolling into her bed and falling fast asleep.

She was awoken when morning came, by the same stern woman who led her there. "We have arranged for some transport to get you to the next town. Your breakfast will arrive shortly, and the bathroom is just through that door. I expect you to be ready to go in an hour." And with that, Minerva turned on her heel and quickly left the room.

The rest of Pippa's morning was spend either rushing or being ushered from place to place, until she made it to a bus terminal. And it wasn't until she was on the road to her grandparents' house that she realized that she never got those answers.

And well, if the students at Hogwarts saw a girl dressed in muggle clothing the morning of their first day of classes, well no one paid much attention to it. After all, how could a muggle find Hogwarts?

* * *

Well, this didn't turn out quite as I wanted. I sorta got bored like half way through? But I promised myself I'd finish sooo.

And yeah, its a bit rushed at the end, but thats okay. Because at that point I just really wanted to finish this.

This oneshot was made using one of my theories, which is centered around Squibs and Muggles, and the assumption that magic trumps genetics. As shown in the books, squibs like Filch are capable of making some potions, doing simple spells, and seeing past muggle repelling wards. Muggles are not able to do any of this, and I assumed that all squibs have some magical power. The concept of muggleborns sorta throws a wrench into that, because logically if two muggles can have a child that is magic, then wizards should be able to have muggle children and not just squibs and muggles should be able to have children who are squibs.

Now, since every child of wizarding parents that doesn't have enough magic to go to school is called a squib, and it is unlikely that there are no wizardborn muggles, then there has to be something in the environment that can influence the difference between a squib and a muggle. The big difference? Squibs are surrounded by people doing magic and magical objects, and muggles are not. Therefore the exposure to magic at a young age can cause a child to develop a small amount of magical ability out of necessity, otherwise the kid could get lost behind the muggle repelling wards or something.

So using that thought, if a muggle was exposed to a large amount of magic at a young age (for example spending time with a wizarding family very often when a baby) the born muggle could end up being a squib.

Since squibs are able to see Hogwarts, then eventually either a muggle turned squib or a squib born from muggle parents could find Hogwarts, even if by accident.

Thanks for reading! : D


End file.
